Guns
by renzic
Summary: Calleigh and guns always seem to cause trouble
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ok so this is my first writing of a CSI: Miami story I've written a couple of other stories in CSI category, what I need to know if this story portrays the characters correctly as I've only watched a few episodes here and there and read a few fanfiction. Please let me know if I'm on the right track and thank you for reading**

Calleigh loved drive by shootings not the actual act but all the different trajectories, different guns moving targets it was like a big puzzle waiting to be solved. What she didn't like was when the pieces didn't match this is what was causing her great frustration right now and an impending headache from too much microscope peering.

Letting out a frustrated sigh she put another bullet on the microscope, as if on cue Horatio stepped up beside her.

"Bullets not behaving themselves?" Horatio asked in a humorous tone

"This one just doesn't seem to want to match, it's the only one I have all the rest are from semi-automatics, drive by shooting weapon of choice might I add, but this one is from a single hand gun and is the only bullet and I can't identify the gun." Calleigh complained placing another slide onto the scope.

"Have you tried the new imitation glocks?" Horatio asked as he peered down the microscope that Calleigh had moved away from.

Calleigh gave him a disgruntled look "They were the first ones I tried, things have been hot on the market for the last 6 months, local estimates put some 5000 on the streets of Miami, but it's not one of those the striation is all wrong"

"Well I'm sure you'll figure it out, you always do, I just dropped by to say goodnight, I'm taking Madison and Ray Jr to a movie, I have a funny suspicion that it involves rabbits and singing" Horatio joked as he headed towards the door "Don't stay too late" he warned as he reached the hallway.

"I won't Bunny boy" Calleigh replied to his departing form

"I heard that" Horatio called a smile on his voice as he exited the doors

Calleigh put her head down and the next time she looked at the clock three hours had gone. Then it hit her, the bullet was so different because she was thinking modern but in fact it was more than a 60 year old style of gun, she wasn't sure, she'd have to check by firing one, excited about this advancement she grabbed her keys and headed down the hall to the gun cage.

"Hey Jimmy how are you tonight, How's Mandy has she had her baby yet?" Calleigh asked knowing all too well that Mandy was in fact still pregnant but it gave him time to gloat about becoming a grandfather.

"Hi Calleigh, Can't complain, Mandy is doing great the baby is kicking heaps now, you'd be one of the first to know when I become a grandpa, not to long now though" Jimmy replied as he looked down to his sign in sheet while he passed it over to Calleigh. "What are you checking out tonight?" He asked he was always intrigued at what Calleigh would take out of the cage to play with, he wouldn't be surprised if she stepped out with a rocket launcher, she was just that kind of gal.

"Do you know if we still have that old Smith and Weston you know the one, single shot small as they come, not really a weapon more of a piece of art" Calleigh asked

"Oh yeah real sweet little piece easily concealed, not much market for them now adays" Jimmy took the clipboard back from Calleigh after she signed it.

"Well looks like someone's a bit nostalgic" Calleigh replied as she stepped up to the cage as Jimmy buzzed her through the first door, Calleigh then placed her card to the scanner and entered the 6 digit individualized pin code. Despite the fact the Calleigh some days could be in here two or three times if a case was particularly tough she always stood in awe and then took a deep breath and started on her task.

She had just pulled out the drawer that contained the particular gun she was looking for when she heard a door slam open on the other side of the cage, as far as she knew it was just her and Jimmy and maybe two or three cleaners and the night receptionist in the building at this time of night.

"Hey, Jimmy you'll let a draft in if you slam the door that hard" Calleigh called out in the silence

Usually Jimmy would call back some snide remark about Calleigh being his prisoner behind bars, but silence was all that answered her.

Walking back to the entrance of the cage she got the shock of her life, there standing before her were three masked men holding Jimmy at knife point.

"We wouldn't want you to catch a cold now would we darlin'" one of the captors remarked "Open the door, or he won't be catching anything" The man holding a knife to Jimmy's throat pressed slightly harder and a trickle of blood of started to run down his neck.

Calleigh weighed up her options, thinking how ironic the fact that she was in a cage full of guns and she couldn't use any of them. Deciding it was the best option to let them in as there was CCTV camera's everywhere they were being recorded they could catch them, she was taking in every detail.

"You need the pass code and an id", Calleigh replied as if it was impossible for them to get in

"Give me yours" Attacker 1 motioned

"It doesn't work like that the system already has me logged in here it won't let anybody else in, but I can just open the door" She replied quickly as she saw Jimmy pale even more, two of them were already in the inner cage the third attacker was holding Jimmy and the knife outside so he could control the outer door.

As she opened the door she realized that Jimmy in fact was about to die they didn't need him anymore they had her, how could she have been so stupid, right before her eyes the third attacker sliced Jimmy's throat open his mouth fell in a silent scream as he slumped to the ground. She cried out and went to help him but the two attackers were inside the cage the second one grabbed her and pinned her against the cage bars so rough that she gasped in pain as the metal dug into her back.

"Pretty little thing aren't you" the man eyed her up and down

Before she could stop herself she spat in his face, knowing that this was not going to help matters, but she had just seen a good friend die. The result of this was a slap in the face and his hot breath in her face.

"Honey is that all you got?" He asked as his hand went to underneath her shirt to her waist, slowly running his fingers across her stomach he stopped at her belly button as if thinking about something then he grabbed her hand cuffs which she'd forgotten to take off after the busy afternoon she had and handcuffed her to the cage. Turning he had the other attacker chuck him the spare bag they had with them, they worked hard filling the bags from the drawers once both bags were filled they placed them by the door the first man leaving through into the interim room. The second man came over to Calleigh at first she thought he was just going to kill her but then she realized that he was in fact about to un-cuff her as he did she tried to get away.

"Uh, uh" he grabbed her by the waist "Your coming with us Calleigh", she tried to kick him but he moved to fast then it hit her he knew her name, could it be that this all was planned. She didn't have anymore time to think about this as a knife was placed near her back, "One foul move and you won't be walking anywhere anymore, now lets move"

Half an hour a later Horatio received a phone call, he had just dropped the kids back to their respective mothers. "Hello" he answered as he pulled over to the side of road.

"H it's Eric, we have a major problem you need to come down to the station" Eric worried tones transcended down the phone.

"Eric what's going on, something wrong?" Horatio asked

"It's Calleigh she's gone, there was an incident in the gun cage… just get down here as fast as you can" Eric almost pleaded

"I'll be there in 5" Horatio replied as he closed the phone, he reached for the dashboard and suddenly the night was bathed in flashing blue lights.


	2. chapter 2

**A/N First and foremost thankyou for the reviews it was very kind of you all considering this is my first Miami fic, I was worried I was off base with the characters. Secondly sorry it took a little while to post I wanted to make sure I knew where this story was going before I started writing more chapters. Have fun. **

Horatio pulled into the parking lot his mind had been going in overdrive since Eric's call. He walked at a hurried pace through the hall until he reached the entrance to the gun room. Eric was pacing outside and looked up as Horatio approached him.

"I'm so glad you're here it's such a mess, Jimmy's dead Calliegh is missing and I'm still trying to get the CCTV footage of the gun cage" Eric blurted out as he stopped his pacing.

"Tell me what you know" Horatio asked getting straight to the point.

"Seems that somebody robbed the gun cage around 11pm tonight killed Jimmy and took Calleigh with them as well as several guns, we're working on a list of what's been taken." Eric replied as he tried to calm himself down

"Ok, lets have a look at the crime scene shall we" Horatio passed Eric into the room beyond, there he found Alex tending to Jimmy beside the entrance of the gun cage. She looked rattled but managed to keep a professionalism about her that Horatio admired.

"Alex" Horatio greeted as he crouched down beside the body

"He was killed by a single slice to the coroided artery I'd say a double blade knife but I won't be sure until he's on the table, is it true what they're saying that they have Calleigh?" Alex asked in a worried tone.

"It would seem that way" Horatio replied with a deep sigh, getting back up he looked around the gun cage.

He was interrupted by Eric coming up beside him.

"I have the CCTV footage on standby when you're ready to see it" Eric told Horatio as he followed Horatio's gaze.

"It seems odd why come to a police station to get guns it's a lot of hard effort for what they took, there's got to be another reason why they came here and I intend to find out" Horatio commented not really to anyone.

"Let's have a look at this footage then" breaking his attention away from the cage he walked with Eric out of the gun room.

As they sat down in front of the TV both of them were very uncertain what they might see.

It all looked pretty ordinary to start with Jimmy was sitting there doing some paperwork, they then saw him look up as someone entered. Calleigh entered the room and they saw Jimmy smile, she looked excited about something they talked for awhile then Calleigh headed towards the cage, first through one door then the next she was inside the cage and went outside of view ( as the CCTV tape they were viewing was only the foyer area another showed the gun room). Jimmy looks up again as someone enters through the door. Three masked men quickly and successfully take over the gun room, grabbing Jimmy and forcing him off screen. Calleigh reappeared in view slowly opening the doors for the attackers, that's when it happened, Jimmy was on the floor and the attackers where in the cage with Calleigh. Only the now dead Jimmy and his attacker were left in the shot as the others went out of view. Five minutes later the attackers reappear in the shot along with Calleigh, Horatio and Eric watched as she was forced out the door at knife point.

"Eric do we have the tape for inside the cage" Horatio asked anxiously after what he had just seen. He was already worried about Calleigh's welfare but now he was terrified at what might happen.

Eric reached over and placed the new tape into the machine, all was going well as they watched Calleigh move happily towards the gun draws with a bounce in her step the one she got when she knew she was on to something. They watched as her head flew up towards the doors. She slowly closed the drawer she had opened and stepped towards the second door. They saw her talking to someone then she let the two attackers into the cage, next thing they knew Calleigh was pined up against the cage, if anyone had been watching Horatio they would have seen his jaw clench as his fists get tighter as he watched Calleigh's attacker touch her stomach. After packing away the guns they all left the cage.

"Eric I want you monitoring all the tapes I want to know how they got in and how they got out" Horatio turned away and started to dial his phone.

"Ryan, where the hell are you, well you should have been here 20 minutes ago, when you get here I want you to help process the scene then I want you to find out if anyone's looking for a shipment of guns" Horatio barked down the phone.

Eric looked up at this sudden outburst, he'd seen Horatio this angry before but there was something new there fear almost. He watched as Horatio stormed out the door.

* * *

They'd been driving for almost an hour, Calleigh was starting to get worried they hadn't said two words to her after forcing her into the car. Things were about to change.

"Give me your phone" The second attacker barked

Calleigh had completely forgotten it was on her hip she'd had it turned off at the lab as it had been distracting her while she looked at bullet casings, she had figured people could page her if they needed to talk to her. She was broken out of this thought by the knife being poked into her side drawing some blood onto its tip.

"I'm not going to ask again" the man grabbed at her phone and turned it on. It started to ring, as she had voicemail messages, the attacker put it too his ear.

"Sounds like there worried about you, lets give Horatio a call shall we" The attacker suggested

Calleigh realized this was the second time that this man had used their names how did he know them and what did he want?.

* * *

Horatio's phone rang he looked down at the display hoping that it wasn't the press or worse the sheriff, it would have been his luck right now for them to ring. He was surprised when it read Bullet Girl on the display.

"Calleigh, are you ok? where are you? "he asked as he put his phone to his ear

"Sorry she's not able to come to the phone right now, but I thought I'd give you a call Horatio to let you know she's with me" the caller chuckled down the phone

Horatio could have recognized that voice from anywhere "Mark Allen, what do you want with her?" Horatio asked getting straight to the point

"You know I always had a thing for her H, even if you did give her my job, lets say were about to have a little fun, well better go as we know you'll want to trace this, lets say its a head start a little bonus clue, let's see how good a CSI you are, you have 48 hours" with that Horatio was left with a dial tone in his ear.

"Damn it" Horatio swore as he increased his pace along the corridor. "Eric I want you to trace Calliegh's phone NOW"

"What's going on Horatio?" Ryan asked as he walked through the door into the AV suite after hearing Horatio raising his voice at Eric

"Mark Allen has Calleigh?" Horatio replied

"And he is?" Ryan asked

"He was one of the best CSI's I've ever worked with and we only have 48 hours to catch him" Horatio replied as he looked down at his watch, this was going to be the longest two days of his life.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Ok sorry it took a couple of weeks, I got to the point where I'd write something then not like it then change it, then change it back to the original arrrggggg. Was driving me nuts but here it is sorry it's not as long as what it could be but hopefully the next few chapters will be crackers. Cheers**

Calleigh listened into the conversation between Mark and Horatio, it had struck her like a ton of bricks discovering one of the men behind the masks was none other than Mark Allan. She had met him only twice but when she had she had decided to stay away from him as much as possible. He left the lab pretty soon after she got there, she never really found out why but there were rumors bad ones, everybody had turned their back on him for what he had done and nobody wanted to talk about it.

Mark turned back around towards Calleigh,

"Well I guess I don't need this anymore," He slowly removed his mask "I think Horatio was slightly pissed, not surprising considering you're here with me beautiful" Mark reached out his hand to put a strand of loose hair behind her ear. Calleigh was purely repulsed by this and shied away from his hand.

"Hey, look at me when I talk to you" he demanded as he yanked her hair back with force causing her face back towards him. She glared at him with as much defiance as she could muster.

"You and I are going to have some fun, we weren't able to get to know each other when I was at CSI so now's a perfect time to get acquainted, but first we need to change vehicles, Rob pull over by that rest stop up there, by the red van"

Mark handcuffed Calleigh's hands behind her back and subsequently shoved her into the back of the van onto the cold steel floor resulting in her smacking her shins against the side and sending shooting pains up her legs. If that wasn't enough she was soon plunged into darkness as they shut the sliding door and jumped into the front of the van. She could do nothing except hope that what ever was in store that Horatio would save her from it before she ever had to find out.

"I have a location" Eric jumped up from the desk "It's out in the glades about an hours drive from here"

"OK, Eric you're with me, Ryan stay here and process the scene and see if you can find out how they got in and out and who the other men are" Horatio requested as he hurried Eric out the door.

Horatio was driving like a mad man. Eric was starting to get worried that if something bad has happened to Calleigh that Horatio would never be able to pick himself up from it, thinking of ways to calm him down and to stop them being killed before they reached the scene Eric asked him about the case.

"So who is this Mark Allan anyway?" Eric asked

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes before Horatio decided to answer.

"He was one of the best CSI's I've ever worked with, we started around the same time became good friends, he was actually a specialist in ballistics. Then he mislaid some important evidence, at the time IA thought it was on purpose, he had started drinking and gambling in his off time word was that he owed somebody a lot of money and that by losing the evidence he could pay off part of his debt. They didn't have enough evidence for it to stick so they transferred him to nights. Everything got worse from there he started drinking more, he became angry, my career was going forward and he had been transferred and demoted, when he found out I had hired Calleigh he became obsessed with her, always competing against her and me, of course Calleigh didn't know it, I made sure that she was safe from him. I guess it all got too much from him" Horatio sighed as he recalled the scene

"About a month after Calleigh started working I got a call out to a motel not far from CSI there I found a girl same size, blond hair and green eyes like Calleigh, I hadn't known Calleigh for long but it disturbed me, that and the absence of any evidence, she was killed by a single gun shot wound to the head. The only thing that indicated the killer was the bullet it was from a rare gun from the late 40's Calleigh was able to identify it, unfortunately I knew of someone who had one, Mark Allan had left town before I could ever confront him." Horatio took a deep breath at this last comment. "I should have known it wasn't over, I thought I knew him, I thought that he had gotten out of town to save himself, I never thought he'd come back."

Eric was surprised at how open Horatio was being with his feelings Calleigh's disappearance had hit him hard. Eric opened his mouth to say something when he saw a parked vehicle ahead.

"Pull over Horatio, I think we may have found our vehicle" Eric said as he looked down at the GPS device.

As soon as the hummer stopped they jumped out and approached the vehicle guns at the ready. With no sign of activity Horatio reached into his pocket for a glove, he cautiously tried the back door. What was on the other side of it shocked both him and Eric.

The whole seat was covered in blood virtually dripping. Eric took a step back away from the vehicle. Horatio tilted his head as he watched Eric slowly retreat away.

"Eric" Horatio called to the departing CSI "Eric, it's not hers, he wouldn't kill her so soon, he's planted evidence" Horatio dropped his head as he approached Eric's panicked face. Eric snapped out of it.

"What?" Eric asked surprised "This is going to take forever to process, H"

"I know that's exactly what he was counting on, lets get started, can you ring for a tow truck, I'm going to take a look around" with that Horatio looked down at his watch they only had 46 hours to find her and counting.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: OK so here we go next chapter, should be able to get some more up over the next few days as long as the characters behave themselves, they have a tendency to go in a different direction to what I'm writing. Thank you for all your reviews it makes a humble girl like me smile.**

The van came to an abrupt stop slamming Calleigh against the front divider. Despite all her efforts to brace herself while the van was moving she was sure she was going to have bruises for weeks to come from the bumpy van ride she'd been subjected too. Her thoughts were broken as the side door slid open. Squinting from the sudden sunlight she saw Mark reach in to grab her. She tried to kick his hand as his he touched her leg, she managed to connect with it unfortunately he used his other hand to grab her other leg and still managed to pull her out of the van.

"What did you do that for?" Mark asked voice raised as he shook his hand to ease the pain "There's no where to run Calleigh, so no point in struggling just give in to it and it will be so much easier" he suggested as he leaned in close to her face. He pushed her forward towards the run down farm house. Once inside he removed the handcuffs and replaced them with chained shackles to her wrists which were in turn attached to a small metal table that was welded to the floor in the cold debilitated kitchen.

"You're going to help me and we don't have much time" Mark commented as his buddies placed the two bags of guns on the table.

"Clean these, then you and I can get our rewards" Mark reached down and kissed Calleigh. Repulsed by this action she moved her head to the side. This only helped to anger Mark, he yanked on her hair again so that she looked straight into his eyes.

"You will learn to obey me" he spat out "Now get to work" he let go of her.

"If she gives you any trouble you know what to do, I've got to make a phone call I'll be back soon" with that he left, leaving Calleigh alone with two bags of guns and an angry looking man.

* * *

Horatio was getting frustrated, so frustrated in fact that it was starting to show. He was doing his fifth sweep of the scene nothing was standing out, the car had long been towed and Eric had caught a ride back to start getting it processed. As the last patrol car left, he looked down at his watch, which made him curse under his breath three hours had passed and he had nothing to show for it except the start of a headache. Climbing into the hummer he turned on the air conditioning and leaned his head back onto the head rest. He prayed that Eric had found something and was just too busy to let him know, unfortunately in the back of his mind he doubted whether or not they'd find anything useful in the car and so he started back to CSI with a heavy burden on his shoulders and no way to lift it. 

He heard a sigh as he entered the garage, as he approached the vehicle he found Eric rummaging in the back seat on his hands and knees.

"Found anything?" Horatio enquired as he came up behind Eric giving the CSI some room as he climbed out of the vehicle.

"I've been processing since I got back, the blood is human sent it off to DNA doesn't seem to be Calleigh's, there's so many fibres and hairs I've been cataloging for 3 hours straight and I still haven't got all of them, it's going to take at least another 2 to get them all and that's just the back seat, I haven't even started on the front two seats" Eric looked at his boss with despair

"It's ok Eric keep up the good work, I'll get someone on nights to help you process the rest of the vehicle, page me if you find anything and make sure you take a break after you've finished I don't want us running on empty on this case" Horatio commented as he left Eric to continue with processing.

* * *

Calleigh's head was swimming she looked up at her attacker from the position of the floor. Wincing as he gruffly picked her up and placed her back on the chair that had toppled when he had hit her. She rubbed her wrists as she settled on the chair as the cuffs had almost snapped them with the force she fell off the chair with.

"Now get back to work" the captor demanded "Don't make me remind you again"

She had started to fall asleep as finished the first bag of guns it had been 6 hours of cleaning, she was absolutely exhausted as she had worked a double before getting put into this situation, she'd also skipped dinner as she had been too engrossed in the case to stop. She had been abruptly reminded where she was when she ended up on the floor. She picked up the next gun and started to clean praying that Horatio would find her soon.

* * *

Horatio was off to find Ryan he hadn't heard anything from the young CSI since leaving the station. He found him in the AV lab winding and rewinding CCTV footage. 

"Ryan" Horatio greeted as he stepped up beside his chair.

"Sorry I haven't contacted you yet but I wanted to be sure in what I had before I filled you in." Ryan apologized as he rewound the tap and faced his Boss.

" I started off with tonight's footage and worked back. You can't see much from the corridors or the back entrance which is where they came in I might add. Looks like they knew where all the positioning of the cameras where which made me think. Someone must of known where they were placed and what they picked up, now at first I thought maybe it was this Mark Allan guy knew from when he was a CSI but the camera's have changed and been cleaned e.t.c since he left so that was a dead end. Then I got thinking how did they know that Calleigh was in the gun cage at the time the came in" Ryan questioned

"They were monitoring the camera's" Horatio commented as it dawned on him what was going on.

"Exactly, I was trying to find a situation where someone had maybe cleaned or moved the camera's last so I started looking over the last couple of weeks of tape. Seems one of them was faulty two weeks ago I was just about to look at the other tapes around that time to see if we can get a shot of who fixed it." Ryan answered

"Keep up with the good work" Horatio placed his hand on the younger mans shoulder "Let me know if you get an image" Horatio requested as he headed out the door.

"Why where are you going?" Ryan asked to the now empty room

"Damn I hate it when he does that" he cursed under his breath.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Sorry it took so long to write this I ended up jumping ahead and writing a couple of chapters ahead of this one as they just popped into my head making it so much harder for me to come back to this one (stupid brain). I also don't have a beta so all of the mistakes belong to me. Thanks for the reviews they've made me try harder.**

She'd only found herself twice more on the floor before she finished cleaning the guns. The second time the brutish thug had managed to split her lip and bruise some ribs. As she finished the last gun Mark walked back through the door, he'd been back a couple of times to check on her and at one stage he had taken a Polaroid picture of her but on the whole had been absent for the gun cleaning exercise which she was grateful for.

"I see you're finished" he stated as he looked over one of the final pieces checking the barrel. "These will do, now it's time for you and I to have a little fun" Mark commented as he produced a small needle from his pocket. Calleigh struggled against her bonds at the thought of what was to happen next.

"Now that's no way to act honey" Mark walked towards Calleigh needle in hand grabbing her arm forcibly he inserted the needle into her arm. She closed her eyes as she felt the cold liquid enter her bloodstream. "We'll just give that a couple of minutes for that to act shall we" Mark walked across the room to a waiting bottle of scotch and poured himself a drink. Drink in hand he proceeded back to the table and sat down in a vacant chair placing his worn shoes on the table.

"You know I was angry when I got transferred to nights, do you know how hard I had worked to get where I was. If it hadn't been for Horatio and his snooping I would have been fine. Then I saw you in my place, I thought Horatio had hired you for your looks, god knows that man needs a girlfriend even if it is just in his mind, but then I realized you were good at your job too. I thought you and I could have made the lab the best ballistics lab in the country and maybe even been together we have a lot in common." Mark sighed at the memory

"I tried to approach you about it, but you always gave me the cold shoulder and then Horatio interrupted again always seemed to be close to where you were like a damn territorial dog" anger flared in his eyes "That's why I have to teach him a lesson, take away all he takes for granted, he's been working with you for three years and still hasn't made a move, well one mans mistake is another mans blessing" he looked up at this last statement.

"How are you feeling, still able to move your limbs?" Mark asked in a lighter tone

"You expect me to feel sorry for you? I would have never been interested in you" Calleigh replied in a slurred heavy southern accent

"I take that as a no" Mark replied as he stood, producing a key out of his pocket, unlocking the cuffs around her wrists. Gently lifting her into his arms he headed towards a room in the back of the house.

"Just remember, I'm only taking what should have been mine" he whispered as he placed her on the double bed in the center of the room. He stroked her face as he got up and proceeded back to the door and slowly shut and locked it with a smile on his face.

* * *

Horatio looked over the maintenance log. Two weeks ago the cameras had been serviced, but what he wanted to know was who put in the call, as it was unlikely they had been stopping phone traffic, so it had to be whoever put in the original call that was in on it. He finally found the document he was looking for the request for maintenance work. He scanned the page until he found a signature.

"John Edwards" Horatio muttered to himself as he grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. "Time to pay you a visit"

After talking with his supervisor he realized that John had in fact not turned up for work today and as he had the last two days off everybody had just thought he was taking an extra day. Horatio had gotten his address off his supervisor and was on his way out the door when he was stopped by Eric.

"H, I thought you might want to see this" Eric puffed as he gathered his breath

Horatio took the evidence bag out of Eric's hand.

"It's some kind of seed" Horatio stated as he examined the bag

"I found it under the hood of the car down by the windscreen wipers at first I thought maybe it was just blown under from the wind but then I looked at the rest of the car and I found one inside under the driver's seat. I'm running it through the database at the moment to get the exact tree" Eric took the evidence bag from Horatio

"Good work Eric, keep me posted" Horatio commented "You can reach me on my cell I'm off to pay a maintenance man a visit"

When Tripp and Horatio arrived at the house it looked like no one was home.

"You think maybe he's gone on holiday? Maybe knew we'd come looking for him decided to skip town" Tripp commented as they knocked on his door

"I don't think our man even left town" Horatio replied as he tilted his head looking towards the garage door which was slightly ajar

As they lifted the garage door they were confronted with a body lying flat on the concrete

"I believe we've just found Mr Edwards" Horatio commented as he stepped closer to the body noticing the bullet entry wound to the forehead. Crouching down and using a glove he reached for Mr Edwards body grabbing a photo that was sticking out of his shirts pocket.

"Son of a bitch" Horatio swore as he looked at the photo.

"What is it?" Tripp asked

Horatio handed him the glove and photo as he exited outside to call Alex and to get his temper under control.

There starring up at Tripp from the Polaroid was the one and only Calleigh Duquesne.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Ok so this is a short chapter, as some of you may have guessed Calleigh was going to have bad things done to her and she does. I'm going to go for the "I don't want to write graphic depictions of rape" stance on this one leaving it up to your imagination plus it keeps the fic under the M rating. Oh and I know nothing about American trees so if any of you are tree experts I'm happy to change the species of the tree.Hope to have the next chapter up soon.**

**Disclaimer: As I believe I haven't done one for this story, I don't own anything apart from the nasty original characters and even I don't like them**.

Alex arrived on the scene within 15 minutes of the call, Horatio was impressed by her punctuality considering she looked like she was just holding it together.

"Horatio, what are we looking at here" Alex asked, Horatio had not said much about the scene when he had called her in.

Looking through his sunglasses he glanced towards the body. "Male , 34 , lived alone, single gun shot wound to the head"

"Horatio, what is it sugar, what's bothering you apart from the obvious?" Alex asked as she studied Horatio more closely noticing the worry creases near his eyes which he was trying to hide with his sunglasses.

"He's toying with us Alex, we found this on the body" Horatio lifted up an evidence bag to Alex.

Alex brought a hand to her mouth as she studied Calleigh's appearance in the photo. There she sat with a busted lip and bruises forming on her face.

"She's alive Horatio hold onto that fact, now we can help her best by processing the scene" Alex motioned for them to walk towards the body

"You're right Alex" Horatio sighed "It's just that…" Horatio started

"I know honey, but you can tell her when you see her" Alex reassured as she realised how deep Horatio's feelings went for Calleigh way beyond boss or co-worker.

It had taken a couple of hours to process the scene as Horatio didn't want to miss anything. During his search he discovered that the car they had in the CSI garage in fact belonged to John Edwards, which would explain why no foreign vehicles were seen around CSI at the time of the abduction. Taking in a breath he studied the street in front of him, trying to think of his next step or even better Mark's next step.

The ringing of his phone brought him out of his somber mind frame.

"Eric, tell me you have something" Horatio answered without even a hello

"The seed it's from a northwestern redwood, not to common in Florida, stands about 18ft tall if a mature, it's easy to identify though it has…"

"A four pronged leaf that turns red in autumn and often has several birds nesting in it" Horatio finished

"How did you know?" Eric asked

"Because I'm staring it right now, damn" Horatio cursed into the phone "It's a dead end Eric the tree's at Mr Edwards house beside his driveway. It's likely we found the seeds because they'd parked the car outside at some point, look I'm heading back to the lab grab Ryan we'll meet in my office in a half hour."

"OK H see you soon" Eric signed off.

* * *

Calleigh had retreated into herself as soon as he touched her. She was aware of what he was doing but she didn't want to see it with her eyes. She'd tried to close them but that only resulted in getting hit in some form. So instead she just thought of good memories, the first time she learnt how to fire a gun, her first kiss, meeting Horatio for the first time, the Christmas party two years ago.

She suddenly felt the weight lift off her, curious she came back from her happy place to discover that Mark was talking to a man in the doorway. She could only catch parts of the conversation something about drop off and the Marina a boat called Fair Maria not much more was said as Mark said goodbye and came back towards the bed he approached her and straddled her once again, seeing that she was regressing back into wherever she'd been before he grabbed her hard.

"Oh no you don't I want you to enjoy this" he commented kissing her hard on the lips and he started again on his activities. Calleigh couldn't stand it anymore she tried to close her eyes, this time he was even more violent with her and he started to choke her just so she would open her eyes. The last thing she heard as she succumbed to blackness was Mark cursing after he realized he'd gone too far.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I know I know long time no update there was something nagging me about this chapter, plus I've been enjoying reading some of the brilliant stuff that's been posted lately. Anyway enjoy. **

She woke up disorientated and in the dim light of her prison. She could barely swallow it felt like her throat was swollen to twice its size, that's when she remembered what had happened. Her free hand slowly and lethargically reached to the side of her neck she winced as she touched the tender flesh of her neck. Her mind was racing, she had to get out of here they were going to kill her it was just a matter of time. She took stock of the situation her body was still responding slowly due to the drugs in her system, one of her wrists was chained to the bed, luckily it looked like he had left her legs unchained. Looking around she could find nothing to open the cuffs with, now it was time to make the hard decision stay here or figure a way to get her hand out of the cuff. She went through her choices 1) She could lay there waiting for them to come back 2) She could try and pry open the cuffs with her hands and 3) She could break her thumb and get her hand out. None of them seemed like happy choices in her book but two and three had to be better than one. Rolling onto her stomach wincing from her bruised ribs she was now facing the cuff she slowly crawled into a position where she could try and pry it open. After five minutes of trying she was exhausted and no closer to her goal of freedom and had only resulted in her wrist to start bleeding again.

Calleigh took a deep breath; she decided she had to go with her third choice it was either that or die in this cold soul destroying room. Calleigh refused to be the victim so she searched the room for something to help her achieve her task, she found her relief in a heavy bible in the side draw beside the bed, thinking how ironic she was seeking salvation by hurting herself with a book of god. Starting on the task she bit back her screams as she proceeded, once her hand was free she collapsed into the pillow trying to get her breathing back under control as she had become dizzy from the pain.

All she could think of was get up Calleigh, you have to get moving, you have to find Horatio, you've got to tell him before its too late. Slowly getting up from the bed she moved towards the window, she tried to open it with her good hand it wasn't budging. As she walked over to the chair next to the bed (to use to smash the window) she stepped on her torn shirt she suddenly realised she was naked, searching the room she found a couple of articles of clothing which weren't as damaged as her shirt. She didn't have much choice but to put them on as it was going to be cold outside, even so she felt dirty by putting on items that he had touched with his hands. Trying to brush these thoughts aside she use all her strength to pick up the chair and throw it through the window. She waited to hear if anyone was coming to stop her, not hearing any movement in the house she climbed out the window into the cool night air. She stumbled as her legs cramped in the cool air trying to work the drugs and tiredness she felt, she headed as fast as she could down the driveway onto the road. She had just one thought on her mind, find Horatio.

* * *

Horatio sat in his office, he looked over the file in his hand for the 10th time that day trying to wipe the sleep out of his eyes he sighed. Ryan, Eric and him had been at it for hours to the point that he sent them home as they were dead on their feet. His eyes betrayed him as they looked at his watch. Five hours left, no leads, he was going to fail Calleigh, his heart was breaking in two. So long he had wanted to tell her how he felt and now he'd never have the chance. He placed his head in his hands closing his eyes in sorrow.

Alex stood in the doorway, it hurt her to see him like this. Everyone was a wreck at the moment but Horatio was dieing with Calleigh every moment that slipped away. This is something that was going to destroy this caring selfless man and there was no way to prevent it, all she could do was to try and keep together the pieces as they shattered. She stepped towards his desk and crouched down and placed a hand on his knee. His blue eyes slowly lifted to hers.

"He's won Alex, no matter how hard I've tried there are just no other leads, I've worked the boys to exhaustion, I can barely think straight, I've helped so many people in this job and when it truly matters I can't do anything. She's out there Alex and there is no way I can find her" Horatio commented with anger slowly creeping into his voice.

"It's not over yet Horatio, there's still time, I'm surprised at you Horatio I never thought you'd be one to give up" Alex chastised him with her words

Horatio was about to reply when he was cut short by the ringing of his cell phone.

"Horatio" he barked into the phone

Alex watched as his face showed serious concentration as he listened to the caller. Snapping his phone shut he turned his face to Alex.

"Grab what you need Alex and meet me at the Hummer we have a body to process and not much time, you can arrange for the van to pick the body up on the way" Horatio got up from his chair and grabbed his jacket.

* * *

Calleigh's was cold, so cold, right then left right then left, just keep on walking. Horatio, right then left. She hurt, but it was ok everything was slowly going numb, Horatio. She was so caught up in her rhythm she didn't hear the car approach her from behind.

* * *

"Horatio you're not going to achieve anything if you kill us on the way to the crime scene" Alex cautioned as she held on tight as they went around another corner at a fast speed.

"They've found one of the men from the robbery they're waiting for us before proceeding on the area search as they realise how important it is for one of us to be there, Ryan and Eric are meeting us there" Horatio replied with determination in his voice. Pulling up to the crime scene in record time, Horatio climbed out of the Hummer as fast as humanly possible grabbing his case as he went. As they reached the body he sighed, it was obvious Mark was playing games with him, the body had been displayed but before he could think too much about it Eric and Ryan came up beside him.

"Want us to do the area search H?" Eric enquired

"Yes…" but before Horatio could get too much more out his phone interrupted his commands.

"Horatio" he answered. Eric watched as Horatio's face became paler and paler. "I understand" was all they heard as Horatio closed the phone. Turning on his heals he broke into a run yelling for Alex to join him as he reached the hummer.

"What is it?" Alex asked as she settled back into the hummer.

"Calleigh" was the only answer she got from Horatio's lips as he flicked on the lights and sped off from the current crime scene.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: First and foremost thank you for the reviews I didn't know people had such an interest in this story as there are so many other good ones like it. Secondly this was a very hard chapter for me to write. I might have to adjust a wee bit if any of you can spot something that's not quite right, just let me know.**

Early morning was breaking as Horatio pushed the hummer along the country road. He slowed as he saw the intended target up ahead and slowly pulled up behind the car and signaled for it to pull over. The car obliged and pulled to the edge of the road. Horatio got out of the car and approached the driver's window.

"Are you the man that called her in" Horatio asked

"Yeah I was driving home from a bingo match in town saw her walking along the road, I've tried to get her to stop but all she keeps on saying is Horatio, nothing else she won't stop, so I thought I'd follow her until you got here" the man replied.

"Thankyou" was all that Horatio got out before starting in a steady trot up the road away from the vehicles. Alex was already getting her medical kit out of the hummer. Horatio reached her in a matter of seconds he managed to place a hand on her shoulder. She didn't slow she just kept on walking, causing Horatio to get in front of her. Her eyes were locked onto her feet and the road ahead. He slowly stopped her and lifted her head towards him noticing her flinch at him touching her. She took him in with eyes full of exhaustion, pain and fear, but most importantly her eyes locked onto his.

"Horatio" was all she managed to choke out from her bruised throat as she crumpled to the ground. Standing so close Horatio managed to break her fall and slowly brought her into his arms. "Alex" Horatio emotionally cried as he held Calleigh in his arms "Its ok I have you" he whispered as he held her pale shivering body. Alex stopped abruptly beside the two of them "Oh baby" was all she managed to get out before covering her mouth with her hand to stifle back a sob. "Horatio we need to get her back to the hummer" Alex requested as he lifted Calleigh's body in his arms. Following Alex at a steady pace but trying to minimize any jarring of her injuries he walked with Calleigh back to the Hummer.

"I'll get some blankets" Alex commented realizing that there was no way Horatio was going to let Calleigh go.

Horatio peered down at her small frail form, she looked so much smaller than usual, he wasn't sure if it was from her treatment over the last few days or just the lack of her normal spark. He kept talking to her in soothing tones, telling her it was going to be alright, that she was with him, meanwhile he had never felt such a mixture of anger and pain. Her eyes were half open and her shivering had increased, large purple bruises marred her perfect features, what sort of treatment had he'd subjected her to? Horatio wondered with an anger like he'd never felt before even, when his brother had died or Speed it had been unjust but with this was something so much deeper, he was broken out of his thoughts with Alex calling his name.

Alex had retrieved several blankets out of the hummer and laid one down on the road.

"Horatio, we need to move her onto the blanket I need to take a look at her" Alex requested.

Horatio did as Alex requested and laid her down on the blanket.

"I know this is hard for you honey, but can you call for a medivac on the hummer radio while I check her out." Alex was giving him an opportunity to calm himself down and get his composure for Calleigh.

When Horatio went to remove his hand from hers, she little out a small whimper and opened her eyes wider trying to take in his presence beside her.

"It's ok Cal, I just need to get you some help I'm just going to the hummer, Alex is here she just needs to check you out ok" he reassured her as he got up from beside her.

He heard Alex gently talk to her as she checked for injuries; he ran a hand over his face as he reached the hummer, trying to get a grip on the situation. Reaching inside he started to relay their location over the radio.

Alex didn't know where to start, here was her friend lying beaten and bruised and who knows what else in front of her. Taking a breath she started at the top.

"Honey, you have to stay with me ok, I'm going to check you out, I'm sorry if I hurt you" Alex looked into her eyes to make sure she understood.

"Hurts" Calleigh croaked out

"I know honey, I know, But help will be here soon" with that Alex started to take notice of her injuries, most were obvious due to the bruising which there tended to be a lot of, what she was more concerned about was about any internal ones that she may have sustained, that on top of shock and hypothermia (from the lack of clothing) just added to her fears they needed to get her to a hospital sooner rather than later. She reached the top of Calleigh's legs, there her deepest fears were confirmed the amount of bruising that was present was consistent with that of rape victims, closing her eyes she took a breath and continued, she had just reached Calleigh's bloodied feet when Horatio rejoined them.

"Poor baby must of walked miles, her feet are all torn up" Alex commented as Horatio placed himself at Calleigh's head stroking her hair gently, talking to her softly.

"They're going to be here soon Calleigh, you just wait with me ok, let me see your beautiful eyes".

Calleigh felt like the whole world was sitting on top of her. She was so cold, the only warmth she felt was Horatio's hand on her head. Horatio, she had to tell him something, but her head wasn't co-operating. She was trying so hard to remember.

"Tell..yo..u ." Calleigh started trying to force the words out her bruised throat

"Shhhh, take it easy, can you hear that Calleigh there almost here" Horatio commented on the helicopter sound in the distance.

"Fa..i..r Ma..r..i.'" Calleigh tried to get out again, getting slightly agitated when she didn't think Horatio was listening to her. "Boat" Calleigh said as forcefully as she could which started her into a coughing fit.

"Whoa, Calleigh listen to my voice concentrate on my voice, is he on a boat? The Fair Mari, just look at me, look into my eyes" Horatio asked as she continued into her coughing fit.

She couldn't get it under control her body was just wasn't co-operating, soon she was out of air, the last thing she remembered before blacking out was Horatio looking into her eyes with such pain but also with such love.

"Calleigh, no don't do this, Calleigh?" Horatio's voice went up a notch when he realized she'd passed out.

"Horatio, the paramedics are here you have to move, they'll take good care of her," Alex touched his shoulder and tried to guide him toward the hummer where she sat him down. Everything from that point was a blur the paramedics soon had her on a backboard and in the chopper.

"I want to go with her, Alex" Horatio requested almost like a little boy

"I know, but there's no room, I'm driving" Alex closed the door on Horatio grabbing the discarded blanket off the road before climbing into the hummer herself.

"It's going to be ok" Alex tried to assure him, if that was so true then why did she have a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, Trying to push it aside she started the engine and started to follow the path of the disappearing helicopter.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Direction, direction I had a moment on a bus today where I decided what direction this story is going to take. Hopefully this means quicker chapters. For all of you that have reviewed it means a lot to me, so a big thanks. Any things not right in this chapter let me know!**

Alex hadn't heard Horatio say two words except a short spell of instructions to Eric and Ryan over the phone when they first started off, he sat there just staring at his hands deep in thought. They had reached the city pretty fast but the traffic at this time of morning was terrible at the best of times. Horatio shifted in his seat for the fifth time in as many minutes, she could tell he was getting restless.

"We're only five minutes from the hospital Horatio, she's in good hands" Alex tried to reassure him.

"She was so frail Alex, I've never seen her look so weak, what he had done to her" Horatio started to turn his head to look out the window and cover his emotions.

"She's a fighter, you have to remember that, the fact that she got so far on her own, shows how strong she is" Alex tried to comfort him as she pressed on through the traffic seeing the hospital up ahead.

"That's the point Alex she shouldn't of needed too, if I'd sent her home when I had the chance if I'd chased Mark all those years ago, she didn't deserve this" Horatio replied

"No one does honey, now lets go see how she's doing" Alex requested as she opened her door to walk towards the emergency entrance.

Alex and Horatio both approached the desk at a fast pace.

"Calleigh Duquesne where is she?" Horatio asked in a curt tone.

"I'm sorry sir who?" the receptionist replied.

"Blond, petite, would have been brought in by medivac about 20 minutes ago" Alex interjected.

"That would be Dr Simons patient, I believe he's still with her, I can get him to come and find you when he's ready" the receptionist replied turning back to their computer monitor.

"Thank you honey we'll be right over there" Alex motioned to the seats adjacent to the receptionist desk.

Alex had to distract Horatio before he started to dwell on the result of the last 2 hours.

"Did Eric and Ryan say they were coming down?" Alex asked

"They're checking out the boat, Eric wanted to come straight away but we need to catch him Alex, in fact I should be at HQ right now" at this statement Horatio went to get up.

"You're not going anywhere mister, who's going to wait with me" Alex answered trying to give Horatio a purpose he was craving for.

"Anyone here for Ms Duquesne?" A tall doctor with brown peppered hair asked as he ventured into the reception area.

"Doctor, I'm Doctor Alex Woods and this is Lieutenant Horatio Caine, we're with the Miami Dade Police department and also work with Calleigh" Alex announced before Horatio could comment.

"Please have a seat" Dr Simons indicated as both Horatio and Alex had stood up at his question.

"Do either of you know what happened to her?" Dr Simons asked directing his question towards Horatio.

"She was kidnapped two days ago, I believe she must have escaped at some point we found her walking down a road in the everglades" Horatio answered not letting himself think about what he had just said.

"That would explain some of the injuries. Ms Duquesne is severely dehydrated, hypothermic, has several lacerations to her feet and face, her left thumb has been dislocated, two bruised ribs and the amount of bruising on the rest of her body is something I usually see in domestic violence or rape cases, she's lucky to be alive the amount of bruising around her neck indicates someone was very close to killing her, we've had to put her on a ventilator to keep the airway open. I understand you will need to take pictures, a nurse took some preliminary photo's and a SART kit in the ER and we've bagged what was left of her clothes but can I ask you to wait a couple of hours until we have her settled before processing her, we need to make sure her body temperature has bee brought back up to normal." The doctor requested.

Horatio's jaw had tightened at the mention of how close she had been to death. He started thinking about Mark and what he had done to her.

"Can we see her?" Alex asked

"Of course I'll have a nurse take you to her room, I hope you find the man who did this, now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to the ER" the doctor replied before leaving them to digest what they had just been told.

"If you'd like to follow me" a nurse with raven hair requested as she turned toward the elevator.

The trip to Calleigh's room was silent, with Alex steeling glances a Horatio trying to figure out what was going on in his head. As they reached the doorway Alex noticed he faltered as if having second thoughts about crossing the threshold into her room. Alex slowly grabbed his hand and helped him take that step into the bright sterile room that lay beyond.

Both of them knew it was going to look bad, but neither Horatio nor Alex was fully prepared what lay in front of them. Calleigh was surrounded by various machines doing their programmed jobs, if anything she looked worse than before almost blending in with the crisp white sheets of the hospital bed except for the vivid bruising that marred her features. Horatio let go of Alex's hand and made his way towards the bed. He pulled up the available chair taking her free hand being careful of the IV's and placed it in his own giving it a small kiss as he did so.

Alex turned to give him the privacy that he needed, as she slowly made it back to the door she turned to see his shoulders start to shake, it was at that point she realized that she was witnessing something that she had never seen before, there before her was Horatio Caine crying.


End file.
